Types of noun - Easy Learning Grammar

Nouns that are really names are called proper nouns. Proper nouns usually refer to a particular named person or thing.

They include:

the names of specific people.

Anna Dickinson

John Lennon

Lucy White

Mrs Merton

geographical items.

Spain

Mount Everest

China

England

The Thames

Paris

Covent Garden

Balcombe Road

days of the week, months, and annual Church festivals.

Thursday

June

Christmas

Easter

patented goods and trade names.

Hoover

Persil

Jaguar

Samsung

newspaper and magazine titles.

The Times

Vogue

The New Scientist

Time Out

shop, cinema and theatre names, buildings.

The Odeon

New Look

The Royal Mews

Nationwide

titles (the polite or professional labels that we give to people).

DoctorJohnson

SirGeorge Hardie

ProfessorJames

PresidentHollande

A person’s title is usually placed before his or her name. Proper nouns and titles are always written with an initial capital letter.

All the other nouns that refer to things or species are called common nouns.

I put thetennis ballsin thatbasketthere.

Mybrotherandsistervisited mymother.

Theangerthat John felt was overwhelming.

Common nouns can be divided into the following groups, according to their meaning:Abstract nouns. These refer to intangible items.

honesty

anger

idea

time

ugliness

behaviour

Concrete nouns. These refer to tangible items.

pig

granite

table

butcher

brother

sugar

A concrete noun may refer to a living thing (animate nouns) or a physical object (inanimate nouns).Collective nouns. These refer to collections of people or animals.

aherdof cows

aswarmof bees

Nouns may also be classified according to the words with which they are used, that is:

whether or not the noun gives us information about singular and plural number.

the other words that can be used in the same noun phrase.

This gives us a useful distinction between countable nouns and uncountable nouns.Countable nouns refer to things that we can count: one cat, two cats, seventeen cats,and so on. They have singular and plural forms, which are shown by the spelling. They must be used with a determiner if they are singular.

Dogsran wild in the streets.

The dogis loose again.

Fetcha chairfor Maddy, will you?

We’ve boughtsix new chairs.

Uncountable nouns refer to:

things that are not normally thought of as countable.

John asked me for someadvice.

Anna gave us some moreinformationabout herwork.

Homeworkoccupied much of Sonia’s evening.

qualities or abstract ideas.

Ourknowledgeof outerspaceis increasing daily.

Trevor gaveevidenceat the trial.

Angeris a normal human emotion.

Uncountable nouns do not usually have a plural form. They are followed by a singular verb. They are not normally used with the indefinite article. (You cannot talk about ‘an advice’ or ‘a money’.) When it is necessary to think of an item as countable it has to be used with a partitive noun. See Types of noun.

Verbal nouns (Verbal nouns), which are formed from the present participle of verbs, can also be used as uncountable nouns.

Why don’t you trywalkingto work?

Brian was told to stopsmoking.

Theringingin his ears continued.

Note that nouns that are uncountable in English may be countable in other languages. See Types of noun.

Mass nouns

These are nouns that refer to a substance that can be divided or measured but not counted, e.g. sugar, water. They do not usually have an indefinite article in front.

Meatis usually more expensive thancheese.

Sugaris quite cheap.

Mass nouns only take a plural in special cases. They can be counted when they refer to:

a particular type or types of the substance.

There was a buffet of bread and rolls, cheese,cold meatsand tea or coffee.

Ros brought out a tempting selection ofFrench cheeses.

The principal sugarsare glucose, sucrose, and fructose.

a serving of the substance.

Two teas, please.

He went up to the bar and orderedtwo lagers.

Mass nouns are often used together with a partitive noun.

There are onlytwo pieces of furniturein the room.

There arethree portions of meatin this special pack.

Five pints of lager, please.

Partitive nouns

Partitive nouns are commonly followed by of. They are used when we need to talk about a part of a mass noun or when we need to count the quantity of something that is referred to by an uncountable noun or a mass noun, especially when it is necessary to talk about:

measurements and quantities with mass nouns.

threepiecesof toast

asliceof cheese

abitof fluff

twospoonfulsof sugar

individual items with uncountable nouns.

Twopiecesof furniture needed major repairs.

We needed severallengthsof string.

a collection of countable nouns.

The road was blocked by aflockof sheep.

He has a smallherdof dairy cows.

There was acrowdof football supportersonthe bus.

Acoupleof cats were fighting.

Many collective nouns can be used as partitive nouns. See Types of noun.

Nouns that have both countable and uncountable uses

Most nouns are either countable nouns or uncountable nouns, as explained on Types of noun. Some nouns, however, behave like countable nouns in some sentences and uncountable nouns in other sentences. They usually have different meanings depending on how they are used. For example time, light, history, space, laugh, and grocery have more than one meaning.

Timepassed slowly.

She did it fourtimes.

Lighttravels faster than sound.

Thelightsin this room are too bright.

The rocket was launched intospace.

There are plenty of emptyspaceson the shelves.

Some nouns that are countable nouns in other languages are used only as uncountable nouns in English, e.g. information, advice.

He received all the necessaryinformation.

I don’t need yourhelp.

Some nouns are used only in the plural form, even when we are talking about one item, e.g. trousers, clothes, jeans. We can use a partitive noun with of when referring to a single item.